Stay or Go
by sUnKiSsT
Summary: SPOILERS FOR INFINITY WAR! Rating is for swearing. Tony wants to die. Nebula is leaving, she could care less if Stark stays or goes. Angst and Hurt for Tony cause that's the good stuff!


**SPOILERS FOR INFINITY WAR.** You have been warned!

There is swearing in this!

See end of story for more notes, please enjoy!

* * *

 **Stay or Go**

Tony was trying not to fly apart at the seams. Hands trembling, eyes wide and red rimmed – blood running down the side of his nose, the stab wound burning against his side, none of this was why he thought he might just start screaming and never stop.

Peter.

God, Peter.

 _"Mr. Stark p-please...I, I don't want to go!"_

The kids super strength like iron bands around his battered torso, blood seeping from the wound – the nanobots unable to compete with the teenage boys desperate, unnatural strength. Tony hadn't been able to breathe, but it hadn't been from the younger mans grip, it had been from his own terror and inability to do anything.

Peter hadn't gone as quickly as the others, and Tony curses his brain for understanding why. Peter has - _had_ incredible healing and the ability to sense when something terrible was about to happen. Those senses had warned him before it started, his healing had tried to stop it. It hadn't been enough.

"I'm so sorry." He whispers into his hands, chest shuddering as everything starts to leak out from behind his ever so carefully constructed barriers. He is dangerously close to another panic attack, the kids white face staring at him with pleading eyes, and what about Pepper? Everyone back home? What if there was no one left?

He couldn't do this – he couldn't...

"We must locate Thanos."

The voice is sharp, and it cuts through his panic like a slap in the face. Tony snaps his head up and looks at the blue alien standing in front of him. Her black eyes are narrowed, her face set in cold determination, one hand resting on the gun at her hip, the other curled into a fist at her side. Any other day, Tony would have been utterly fascinated by this part human part robot being. Today he couldn't care less.

"Thanos won." He says, exhaustion in every word. He hasn't eaten or slept since before Strange took him through that portal and away from Pep. It feels like it's been a million and one years. He just wants to lay down and never get up again.

"He is still alive. We must destroy him."

Tony laughs, but there is no humor in it. "And how do you propose we do that, Smurfette?" He has no doubt in his mind that if she knew who Smurfette was that she would finish what Thanos had started. He doesn't care in the slightest. "In case you didn't notice, we just threw everything we had at that piece of shit and all we got was a bunch of dead people." _He was just a fucking kid - god..._ "So how exactly do you fucking think we can kill your daddy when he left without a scratch? Let me hear this genius plan, cause I'm all ears over here."

 _All of that for one drop of blood._

The dark pitiless eyes narrow and she snarls in his face, "I do not know. But I will feed my father his still beating heart piece by piece – I will make him suffer at least a fraction of the suffering he has caused me. You can stay here and rot for all I care, metal man. Stay here and feel sorry for yourself. Wither and die and fade into nothing. I intend to avenge my sister. What will you do?"

With that, she spins and storms away, all deadly grace and cool confidence. It reminds Tony of Natasha. Of Earth...the Avengers. There might be some of them left. Pepper - what if she was still alive? Left on Earth and waiting for him to come back? Strange saved his life for a reason – it certainly wasn't out of friendship. Maybe there was a way fix this. Maybe – maybe...?

 _Fourteen million different outcomes, and we win only one._ He was good at math - what were the odds that Strange had bartered for his life because he was needed?

He was willing to bet pretty high. _Get up, get up and do something. Fix this. Man up Stark. Strange wouldn't have given away that Time Stone unless it was his absolute only choice._

It doesn't matter that he's tired, that he wishes he could take Peter's place. It doesn't matter cause he's not allowed to give up. Not now, not yet.

 _Get up._

Struggling to his feet and ignoring the burning pain it causes the stab wound, Tony calls out after her, "Geez lady, that wasn't very nice. Deserved maybe – but that's beside the point. I'll come with, since you want me to so badly." He stumbles after her, trying his hardest not to look at the piles of ash that he is walking away from.

"My name is Nebula, earthling. Call me anything but that one more time and I will kill you." She pauses, allowing him to catch up.

"Tony Stark. We need to get to Earth." He responds, ignoring the threat and getting straight to the point, "Daddy dearest would have gone there for the last stone. We have allies there that can help." Tony feels his stomach clench a little, when he remembers just who had the Mind Stone before this whole shit storm began. His heart aches for Vision and he wants to stagger under the weight of grief that hits him again, but he grits his teeth and forces himself to walk straight. There is no time for grief. No time for anything but revenge.

Beside him, Nebula nods in agreement. "The Guardians have a ship close by – I can get us there quickly. We can begin tracking my father from your Terra planet."

"Good." Tony grunts, hands balled into fists at his side as they walk through the ruins of Titan, he tries desperately to convince himself that he isn't leaving Peter behind.

 _Whatever it takes kid, I'll fix this. I promise._

* * *

I hope you enjoyed this. It was my first attempt at an Avengers story, so hopefully that didn't show too much. I have lots of idea for tags after seeing this movie so I'll probably write more soon. Please let me know what you thought!

(that scene between Peter and Tony shredded my heart in to pieces...like ughhhh)


End file.
